The Gobles Tigers track teams delivered a strong 1-2 punch in the D4 track regional competition held at Gobles High School Friday. The girls team earned the first place trophy, led by strong relay teams and dominating individual performances by junior Kimberly Barber, while the boys finished a very close second, upsetting meet favorite Marcellus.

Girls coach Lowie van Staveren called the performance by his team almost flawless.

"What an amazing night for Gobles Track and Field," van Staveren said. "What can I say? So many girls contributed to running an almost flawless meet, and the boys came within a hair's breadth, finishing second to Kalamazoo Christian (coached by Gobles graduate David Arrasmith). Everyone heard the Tigers roar tonight. Way to go, Gobles!"

Barber took first in the 100m and 200m dashes, and also finished first in the long jump. She also anchored the first-place Gobles 400-meter relay team (with Jordanne Kovach, Kylee Vosburg, and Taylor Fifer).

In the boys' meet, junior Gary Rynd set a new personal best in the pole vault (12' 8), tying for the highest vault of the night, and Pierce Vreeland earned big points for his team in the high jump (tied-first) and long jump, qualifying for the state championship meet in both events. Senior distance runner Josiah Dickerson also turned in a strong night for the Tigers. Dickerson was part of the boys regional champion 3200m relay team (with Mason Lawson, Austin Dobbins, and John Brockway).

This summer all of Gobles is invited to participate in a community-wide reading event that will get students and their families on the same page for rich discussions about a variety of topics, from the challenges and responsibilities of citizenship, to poverty, opportunity, respect for others, the impact of sports on teenagers, and the ways in which people who are different learn to live together as neighbors.

For the first time any and all who live in Gobles are invited to take part in reading a book together and discussing the book and the lessons it contains. The book will be distributed in late May and early June, and then in August the English teachers of Gobles MS/HS will host a series of discussions and activities, plus host a community potluck and picnic on August 27.

The book Outcasts United: The Story of a Refugee Soccer Team that Changed a Town, by Warren St. John, tells the true and ongoing story of a small town in Georgia that was transformed when it became a center for the relocation of refugees from around the world. Families from communities all over the world were placed in Clarkston, Georgia, by the United Nations to escape from violence and persecution, and suddenly found themselves living in the United States in a community with other refugees, many of whom did not speak the same language, or share culture, history, or country of origin.

Luckily, a spirited young woman and former college soccer player came upon teenagers kicking the ball around one day in Clarkston, and from the population of refugees formed a soccer team that would help the kids and the entire community begin to think differently about the places they all now called home.

Though there is an edition of the book written for adult readers, we will be reading the youth edition, which is written for middle school level readers.

Community members will be able to donate their copies of the book to the school library to be added as a classroom set for use in English classes by future students.

Community-wide reading events have been taking place in larger communities across the country for several years, and Outcasts United has been used several times, including in San Diego, California. In an email to Gobles teacher Corey Harbaugh, author Warren St. John indicated he was "thrilled, and very humbled" to learn that Gobles had selected his book for a community-wide read along. He offered to help our school and community get the most out of his book with successful activities that have been held in other communities.

In recent years English teachers at Gobles Middle/High School have stressed summer reading, even assigning books to be read by students during the summer to be finished by the start of the school year. Students who read during the summer have been found to start each school year more than half a grade level ahead of non-reading students, on average, and for some individual students who do not read, the impact is even more drastic: they can see their reading skills fall by as much as an entire grade level.

Teachers are hoping this year that the entire family will get in on the summer reading, doing what smart communities and successful students do all over the country: read together, talk about it, learn, and celebrate learning all year long.

Please contact or stop by the district or high school office to pick up a flyer and order form. Contact event planner, Gobles English teacher Corey Harbaugh (628-2113, ext. 1708; or charbaugh@gobles.org) for more information, or if you have any questions about this program.

The new Great Start Readiness Program at Gobles Elementary has received high praise coming at it from two directions. The program received very high scores in a February formal audit by a GSRP specialist from Van Buren County, and also praise from parents who have seen tremendous growth in their students this school year in the program designed to get those students ready for success in kindergarten and beyond.

The Gobles program received the highest possible marks for such elements as the learning environment, the quality of staff, parent and family services, and program management. The audit also found that the program is doing a very high quality job preparing students to enter kindergarten.

According to the reviewer, the Gobles program is especially powerful for the ways it integrates the family of students into the program with the children, so that the entire family is preparing that child for kindergarten together. Gobles' Great Start Readiness Program includes many special programs in the evening, and a great deal of school to home communication, so that all the adults in the life of each student are on the same page when it comes to success in school.

Parents reported on surveys that they have seen their children gain confidence and independence, plus also growth in etiquette and life skills. One parent said the difference in her daughter is due to the quality of the teachers.

“Mrs. Lower and Ms. Kahl are amazing teachers and care so much for the teachers,” she reported. “My child is in a safe and productive environment that better prepares her for the next years in school.”

Gobles students (from left) Chris Baker, Justin Boothby, and Ben Shuler walk towards the water on San Salvador Island, Bahamas.

Gobles junior Tucker Harbaugh said the moment was terrifying when he swam over the wall where the ocean floor dropped out of sight into darkness. He had never been so far from home, and so far out of his comfort zone. But then he realized it was moments like this that brought him on this trip. Harbaugh stared down at the darkness, then over at a couple barracuda who were hanging in the water watching him, and kept snorkeling.

“I came to the Bahamas with a sense of adventure,” he said. “I came to do something new, to explore the world like I’d never seen it. Even though the moment scared me, I knew that facing it was how I was going to learn about all the amazing things around me. I saw a sea turtle in an aquarium once, but seeing one a couple of inches away while swimming in the ocean was just mesmerizing. This trip was the best thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

Harbaugh was one of thirteen junior and senior students and four chaperones on the adventure, a trip made every other year by the Gobles High School Biology Club, under the leadership of teacher Bob Lisowski. The club travels to Gerace Research Station on San Salvador Island to visit local sites teeming with tropical life, especially the diverse coral reef ecosystems.

As biology students the club also explores a bat cave, an island full of marine lizards, a river, the ocean at night, and a beach where trash drifts on ocean currents to wreak havoc on nature. They even help count lionfish, an invasive species being studied by the professional biologists at Gerace.

For Lisowski the trip provides an opportunity for him to teach about the direct impact of human behavior on delicate coral systems.

“It really opens the eyes of students when they see how humans that live half the world away can impact a small place like San Salvador,” Lisowski said. “When students see the junk washed up on the beach comes from ships and even other continents, they are surprised. And they are glad to lend a hand to help clean up the trash. Coming to the Bahamas can really change a student’s life.”

But the students are more than just biologists on the trip. Lisowski makes sure they get to see the local places and the local people as well. Students attend a church service and a session at the local high school where they meet and get a chance to interact with Bahamian teens.

“Most of us have grown up going to school in Gobles with a limited sense of the world,” Harbaugh said. “But I’ve gained more interest in what’s out there in the world. I’ve learned that there’s a whole new world you can see if you are willing to go there and learn about it.”

Gobles High School students are eligible to attend the trip as juniors or seniors, and Lisowski provides opportunities for students to raise one-hundred percent of the funds through service work and fund raising. The next trip will take place in the spring of 2016.

Gobles High School competed in two robotics competitions this season as rookie team #5194, or The 12-Volt Tigers. Students built a robot and traveled to Gull Lake High School and St. Joseph High High School for weekend events during the winter and spring robotics season.

Members of the team took advantage of many great opportunities to experience STEM activities, applying math and science skills in real world tasks and challenges. Additionally, students were exposed to concepts in both business and marketing to take advantage of both funding and community involvement opportunities.

Team faculty mentor John O'Neil said the thrill of the program was watching kids work together to solve problems.

"The task of building a robot creates real challenges and problems," O'Neil said. "And over the course of weeks, the students worked together to solve them. It was fun watching the light bulbs go on as they met every challenge and got our robot ready for competition. It was definitely a learning experience, and we'll already be miles ahead when we start again next season."

Most of the team members will reassemble next school year to build upon the lessons and successes of the first year to build a better robot.

The mission of robotics clubs is explained on the First Robotics website as a program “to show students of every age that science, technology, and problem-solving are not only fun and rewarding, but are proven paths to successful careers and a bright future for us all.”